Starting at Suck: Ideas for 1st level adventures

For "Good" parties:

- Ripped right from Diablo: A local humanoid warband has stolen the Innkeeper's sign and think it's some sort of magical totem. The players are offered a small reward(or their bar tab is expunged) for returning it.
- Where's Waldo: The local sage has gone missing. It's known that he's gone into a certain mountain pass to look for herbs, but that was 2 weeks ago. The heroes are tasked with finding him. The area is relatively safe except for the occasional rock slide and the somewhat carnivorous wildlife.
- Poisoning Pigeons in the Park: A serial killer is loose in the PCs home turf, and his preferred method of killing his victims is by lacing their drinks with slow acting debilitating poison before dismembering them as they attempt to go home for the night. The local brewing festival is only a few weeks away, and the party has reason to believe that he's going to turn the entire festival into a giant bloodbath.
- Heart of Stone: A local sculptor has mistakenly fallen in love with a medusa via her handiwork, thinking she's an incredibly talented artist in her own right. The PCs are tasked with either revealing the truth or helping the couple find true love. (Note: The true love option can provide an interesting twist for the Medusa encounter if you're playing Return to the Keep on the Borderlands!)


For "Evil" Parties:

- Kick a man when he's down: a rival of the group has recently been hauled off to prison. Now's your chance to loot his stuff! You'll have to dodge the city guard though, who consider all the cool toys to be "evidence" in their criminal case. Alternately, now that he's virtually defenseless in prison, killing him once and for all might not be a bad idea.
- Ripped from the Warriors:  You've been framed! You've been accused of killing a major underworld power in the region, and now there's a bounty on your head being paid for by people you normally associate with. If a group is smart, they will not hack and slash their way through this, but turn this into an opportunity to gain even more power and infamy in the criminal underground.

- Ripped from The Darkness: You've pissed off people you shouldn't have and now you need leverage to barter for your miserable lives. Lucky for you, your enemy's right hand man has been gathering just the kind of dirt you're after, and a little birdy told you where to look for it. Now you just have to fight a few hired mooks, and get past a few locked doors to get at that lovely chest of information and evidence.
- Free to Good Home: Every villain needs to protect his lair from do-gooders and fellow villains alike. The price for such protection is never cheap, but your sources may have finally come through for you, having managed to find out about a ghoul trapped in a slick sided stone pit. If the party can figure out how to transport the creature, get it home undetected, and perhaps even train the thing a bit, they'll have a valuable "watch dog" for their lair.